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[XII.
1.]
eliminating these
ills. But, standing in the way of these more rapid advances is the fact
that the capitalists are in a position to make use of the energies of
the lower classes, right down to children, very easily and very cheaply,
and to use them instead of machinery." [Wilhelm Schulz, pp. 70-1
]
...."Lord Brougham's appeal to the workers:
'Become capitalists!'...The evil that million are only able to eke out
a living through exhausting, physically destructive, and morally and intellectually
crippling, labour; that they are even forced to regard the misfortune
of finding such work as fortunate." [Wilhelm Schulz, pp. 60]
...."So, in order to live, the non-owners
are forced to place themselves directly or indirectly at the service of
owners -- i.e., become dependent upon them."
[C. Pecqueur, Theorie nouvelle d'economie sociale et politique, ou etudes
sur l'organisation des societes, Paris, 1842, p. 409 ]
...."Servants--pay; workers--wages;
clerks -- salaries or emoluments.... hire out one's labour, lend out one's
labour at interest, work in another's place. hire out the materials of
labour, lend the materials of labour at interest, make another work in
one's place." [C. Pecqueur, p. 409-10, 411 ]
[XIII. 1.]
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[XII.
2.]
As for the earnings
of industrial employers and workers, the growing competition among factory
owners has inevitably resulted in a drop in profits in proportion to the
quantity of products. Between 1820 and 1833, the gross profit made by
Manchester manufacturers on a piece of calico fell from 4s. 1.5d. to 1s.
9d. But, to make up for this loss, the rate of production has been correspondingly
increased. The consequence is that there have been instances of overproduction
in some branches of industry; that there are frequent bankruptcies, which
create fluctuations of property within the class of capitalists and masters
of labour, and force a number of those who have been ruined economically
into the ranks of the proletariat; and that frequent and sudden restriction
in employment among the class of wage-earners." [Schulz, p. 63]
...."To hire out one's labour is to
begin one's enslavement; to hire out the materials of labour is to achieve
one's freedom.... Labour is man, while matter contains nothing human."
[Pecqueur, pp. 411-12]
...."The element of matter, which can
do nothing to create wealth without the element of labour, acquires the
magical property of being fruitful for them [that is, for the property
owners], as if they themselves had provided this indispensable element."
[Pecqueur, p. 412]
...."If we assume that a worker can
earn an average of 400 francs a year from his daily labour, and that this
sum is sufficient for one adult to eke out a living, then anyone who receives
2,000 francs in interest or rent is indirectly forcing 5 men to work for
him; an income of 100,000 francs represents the labour of 250 men; and
1,000,000 francs the labour of 2,500 (300 million--Louis Philippe--therefore
represents the labour of 750,000 workers)." [Pecqueur, pp. 412-13]
...."The property owners have received
from human law the right to use and abuse the materials of all labour
--i.e., to do as they wish with them.... There is no law which obliges
them punctually and at all time to provide work for those who do not own
property or to pay them a wage which is at all times adequate, etc."
[Pecqueur, p. 413]
...."Complete freedom as to the nature,
the quantity, the quality, and the appropriateness of production, the
use and consumption of wealth and the disposal of the materials of all
labour. Everyone is free to exchange his possessions as he chooses, without
any other consideration than his own interest as an individual."
[Pecqueur, p. 413]
...."Competition is simply an expression
of free exchange, which is itself the immediate and logical consequence
of the right of any individual to use and abuse all instruments of production.
These three economic moments, which are in reality only one--the right
to use and abuse, freedom of exchange and unrestricted competition--have
the following consequences: each produces what he wants, how he wants,
when he wants, where he wants; he produces well or he produces badly,
too much or not enough, too late or too early, too dear or too cheap;
no one knows whether he will sell, to whom he will sell, how he will sell,
when he will sell, where he will sell; the same goes for buying.
[XIII. 2.]
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[XII.
3.]
....(1)
Nowhere does the number of workers and the amount of equipment decline
so greatly in proportion to the size of the stock as in landed property.
Similarly, nowhere does the possibility of many-sided exploitation, the
saving of proportion costs and the judicious division of labour increase
more in proportion to that stock than in this sphere. Whatever the size
of the plot, there is a certain minimum of tools required--a plough, a
saw, etc.--below which it is impossible to go, whereas there is no such
lowermost limit to the size of the property.
....(2) Large landed property accumulated
for itself the interest on the capital which the tenant has invested in
the improvement of the land. Small landed property must employ its own
capital. The entire profit on this capital is lost to the investor.
....(3) While every social improvement
benefits the large landed property, it harms the small one, since it makes
an increasingly large amount of ready money necessary.
....(4) There are two further important
laws of this competition to be considered:
...."(a)
... the rent of the cultivated land, of which the produce is human food,
regulates the rent of the greater part of the other cultivated land."
[Smith, I, p. 144 ]
....In the long run,
only the large estate can produce sources of food such as cattle, etc.
It is, therefore, in a position to regulate the rent of other land and
force it down to a minimum.
....The small landowner who works on his
own account is, therefore, in the same relation to the big landowner as
the craftsman who owns his own tools is to the factory owner. The small
estate has become a mere tool.
[XIII. 3.]
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